From The Story of Civilization, Vol. IV, The Age of Faith, by Will & Ariel Durant, p. 557:
"Pope Gregory went on to Salerno held another synod, excommunicated Henry again,
and then broke down in body and spirit. " I have loved righteousness in spirit," he said,
" and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile." He was only sixty two; but the nervous strain
of his bitter controversies had worn him out; and his apparent defeat by the man whom he
had forgiven a Canossa left him no will to live."

In other words, "Going to Canossa" was not a lasting humiliation, it was a subterfuge to
survive politically, until Henry IV could crush Gregory VII. The Church manages to play that
part down.